Page 176 - home and garden

A lthough the name might mean

nothing to most Europeans, ask
any style-conscious Indian and
they will tell you that the Good
Earth stores are an essential port
of call for lovers of design, colour
and pattern. The shops feature
floor upon floor of beautifully crafted Indian ceramics, hand-
block-printed and woven textiles, and cool cafes serving up fresh
and inventive dishes. To the company’s owner Anita Lal, after
almost 20 years of business, 10 shops and a steadily expanding
empire, this success appears to have come as rather a surprise.
The seeds of Good Earth were sown in the late Seventies, when
‘accidental entrepreneur’ Anita, a trained studio potter who had
two young children at that time, began working with rural arti-
sans to make their designs more contemporary. ‘Modern inter-
pretations of traditional designs didn’t really exist back then,’
she explains. ‘If you wanted colourful and interesting patterned
pieces, you had to import them.’
This brings us to the present day and from India to London,
where Good Earth is sponsoring the Victoria and Albert Museum’s
autumn exhibition, The Fabric of India, a major show exploring
the world of handmade Indian textiles from the third century to
the present day. The exhibition includes more than 200 pieces,
many on display for the first time, including a stunning selection
of historic clothes, heirloom fabrics and cutting-edge fashion.
Walking round Anita’s house in Delhi, it is easy to see why
Good Earth is a natural partner for such an event. Pretty
patterned textiles and bright colours – the hallmarks of Good
Earth – punctuate every space. The feeling is contemporary, but
each of the designs is drawn from and celebrates the remarkable
textile heritage of India and the Silk Road.
The house was built in the Sixties by Austrian architect Karl
Malte von Heinz as a modern haveli (a typical Indian courtyard
house) for Anita’s father-in-law. Anita and her husband moved in
2010 and the house has been gently evolving since. Considering
her eye for design, Anita is not precious when it comes to the
house and, for the most part, the decoration is modest and family
oriented. The dragonfly voile at the dining-room windows is from
the very first Good Earth collection in 1996 and the cushions
on the sitting-room sofas are a combination of old designs and
pieces from last season’s Silk Road-inspired Samarqand

THIS PAGE FROM TOP Framed by one of the white arches in the sitting room,
eclectic artwork hangs above a sofa, creating a quieter place to sit away from
the main seating area in the centre of the room. An Anglo-Indian pedestal
table sits at the centre of the entrance hall; facing this is the dining room
and the arches lead into the sitting room on the left and outside on the right.
OPPOSITE Inspired by the kalamkari tent of Tipu Sultan, the king of Mysore
in the eighteenth century, the dining room has dramatic dark chintz fabric
on the walls designed by Anita's team, which is currently on display at the V&A

174 NOVEMBER 2015 HOUSEANDGARDEN.CO.UK